Hazard Demands The Essential Status

Hazard was key to Chelsea winning the title last season; with 14 goals and 10 assists he drove them forward and inspired many victories. Following a mammoth 233 point-haul, Hazard has been priced at £11.5m this season and despite this heavy outlay, we believe he has to be in your squad at the start of the season.

Mourinho stated that he thinks Hazard is right behind Messi and Ronaldo in terms of talent and it’s hard to disagree. Hazard has the ability to move past opposing players like nobody else in the Premier League with the football glued to his foot, much in the style of Messi. He showed this recently in pre-season against Barcelona…

Hazard is playing the best football of his life and the most interesting part of this is that he could improve. He is only 24 years old and is clearly Chelsea’s talisman. If you just think for a second how much he’d be worth in the current climate and given the fact that Sterling went for £49m, it makes you appreciate what a talent he is.

Many people were comparing Fabregas with Hazard for the first part of last season, with the former Gunner showing a fantastic rate of consistency but come May, there was a clear winner with Hazard finishing with over 70 points more. If Hazard can repeat this feat, surely he is worth the additional £2.5m with Fabregas priced at £9m.

The other comparison to be made is with another debutant from last season, Diego Costa. The bruising striker who always seemed to be up for a scrap (or maybe he just liked playing the role of the villain) had a fantastic first campaign, notching 20 goals and 3 assists.

Despite this impressive return, Costa finished the season with just 150 points compared to Hazard’s 233 with the Belgian picking up 42 bonus points compared to the striker’s 18. Costa’s questionable fitness allied with his ability to pick up yellow cards and the unknown threat of Falcao, make Hazard worth the extra £0.5m.

There’s no doubt that Hazard comes with a high cost but he’ll prove to be a reliable captain on more than one occasion and could easily be challenging to be the highest points scorer at the end of this season.

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